RecycAl update - May 2015

TWI visited the Brunel team in May to catch up with developments on their new experimental high shear process (HSP) casting system. The team have combined their HSP equipment with an experimental launder system to further reduce the concentration of harmful iron contaminants present in aluminium scrap. The HSP breaks up iron based intermetallics into a fine distribution of small particles which subsequently grow as the melt travels down the launder. By controlling the temperature drop of the melt as it moves through the launder the team maximise the precipitation of harmful iron compounds into the liquid melt. Once the melt exits the launder it contains a high concentration of these compounds which are trapped in a sedimentation tank allowing low iron molten aluminium to be extracted from the top of the sedimentation tank. The team have some promising results being able to reduce the iron content of a trial alloy by ~1% which is very close to the thermodynamic lower bound for that particular alloy. The Brunel team are awaiting the compositional details of the RecycAl scrap before fine tuning the process for the project.